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Just applied and received immediate approval (based on credit). 43% LTV based on my conservative estimate so I imagine their quick appraisal will reveal an adequate valuation to give me less than 60% LTV such that I won't need to pay for an appraisal.

Process took about 30 minutes.

1.99% is as low of a rate as I will ever get! And this time I really mean it, unlike the last 5-6 refinances...

I will only be paying $3300 in interest total over the next 5 years with this loan. Crazy.

I got this loan to pay off my mortgage at the 2.99% rate this last January. It was easy to apply for and get, but I'm sorry I didn't wait two months!

I had this loan a few years back and I refinanced it after a year or so and paid the closing costs that Penfed had initially paid on my behalf. I think they added up to $130 or so. You may be able to refinance into the 1.99% rate by paying something similar. Or ask Penfed to see if they can give you a lower rate without doing a formal refi?

Tempting though. Would save about $4K over my planned repayment period (2 years, would have to leave a small balance for a couple months to avoid getting whacked with closing costs).

Would also give me a fixed rate for a couple more years if I decided to leave it in place.

Thanks for the heads up.

Go for it!

FYI - I just received my Truth in Lending disclosures and the Good Faith Estimate and they are only indicating they will charge me $300 for an appraisal, all other closing costs to be borne by them. I am assuming the $300 for appraisal is included for legal disclosure/compliance reasons in case they do end up needing an appraisal. Their offer states LTVs under 60% AND loan amounts under a certain dollar amount won't need appraisals. I have yet to call to inquire about this $300 fee though (this time around).

I took a closer look at it, and I am on the fence. The sixty month amortization is pretty steep. I was initially thinking of it having a 30 year amortization like an ARM.

I owe $270K, so the payment on that would be 4500/mo. My home pay off is being driven by moderate excess payments and some serious bonus/stock funds coming in the next couple years. As long as I stay employed the vesting would make these more or less automatic. But if for some reason I was no longer employed 4500/mo would be rough. Work is pretty secure, but still.

I could borrow extra cash (Plan B) (house is ~425K, @ 80% that is 340K, so 70K cash out, payment of $6K) to cushion, but each dollar I borrow that doesn't get invested at least 1.99% cuts into the savings. In the extreme it cuts it to ~2,500.

Now in the alternative (Plan C), I make about 1600/mo in extra principal payments, so I could pull about 90K @1.99% and take that rate arbitrage, which would be about $1300 over two years at the cost of surrendering my payment flexibility (which isn't that dear to me, and pretty tolerable even if I lost employment).

Mind you if I lost my job I would sell my house as I am here for work only, and there are not comparable jobs in my field. I also have an employment contract that means I'd have decent severance cash coming to me unless the fired me for cause. But frankly cause or perceived cause is really the only thing likely to cause me to be out of a job, in which case severance could be tied up in a tort.

I am playing with plans A,B, and C in my head. The biggest strike on Plan C is whether its enough to be worth my while.

I guess another version of Plan C would be an even bigger HEL coupled with a recast of the mortgage. But googling around it looks like GMAC would charge $500 to recast, which would probably kill the benefit of the bigger pull.

I have about $182k left on a 29 year (remaining) 5/5 Arm from Pen Fed, 3.375% first 5 years, then resets every 5 years thereafter, never more than 2% higher each time.

Original plan was to pay it off as some savings bonds mature over the next 4 years (which would put me right at the point where it resets the first time).

The 1.99% rate sure is tempting, and it would fit in with my pay-it-all-off-in-the-next-5-years plan....but the more I crunched the numbers, the more I realized that I'd be saving perhaps $2k/year by going through it all.

Yes, I'd take $2k/year if it's handed to me, but monthly payments of $3,500 on the 1.99% 5 year HELOC, coupled with having to keep all that $ liquid in my checking account to make the payments each month on the HELOC (it's frustrating to see that pile of cash earing 0.00% in my no interest checking account, and not being able to invest it!) made me realize I could still take the same $ and aggressively pay down my existing ARM each year as the bonds mature instead without much of a net financial 'penalty'.

Thanks Fuego. I have joined Penfed and applied for the loan. We have 8.5 years left on a 3.75% mortgage, but we were going to make prepayments (starting this month) to bring the payoff in to 5 years, so this is perfect for us.

FYI - I just received my Truth in Lending disclosures and the Good Faith Estimate and they are only indicating they will charge me $300 for an appraisal, all other closing costs to be borne by them. I am assuming the $300 for appraisal is included for legal disclosure/compliance reasons in case they do end up needing an appraisal. Their offer states LTVs under 60% AND loan amounts under a certain dollar amount won't need appraisals. I have yet to call to inquire about this $300 fee though (this time around).

Fuego, they told me that I wouldn't need an appraisal (LTV about 40% including a 50K untapped PenFed HELOC which didn't require an appraisal). My GFE does have it listed, but there is also a origination credit for all the various charges. My total settlement fee is $300 and the appraisal is listed as $300, so I'm also assuming that they won't charge that. They moved *super* fast. I applied on March 27th and they didn't request anything but a payoff statement for my old loan and they emailed me about closing info today! This despite the fact that my loan officer quit/was fired a few days back!

Perhaps they moved so fast because they had a lot of info on my property already.

Fuego, they told me that I wouldn't need an appraisal (LTV about 40% including a 50K untapped PenFed HELOC which didn't require an appraisal). My GFE does have it listed, but there is also a origination credit for all the various charges. My total settlement fee is $300 and the appraisal is listed as $300, so I'm also assuming that they won't charge that. They moved *super* fast. I applied on March 27th and they didn't request anything but a payoff statement for my old loan and they emailed me about closing info today! This despite the fact that my loan officer quit/was fired a few days back!

Perhaps they moved so fast because they had a lot of info on my property already.

I just sent them my payoff statement today.

I asked them about the $300 appraisal and it is not required. However today some guy just showed up here at the house and when I answered the door, he said "yep, it is occupied. Thanks. I'm from your mortgage company and they wanted me to verify it is occupied." He took a few pics of the outside and that was it.

I hope they can offer a closing date soon so I can trim the interest I'm paying.

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